


Halved

by AmbitiousWitch



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Empress Rey, F/M, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Rey Palpatine, Sith Rey, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-25 05:20:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21910609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmbitiousWitch/pseuds/AmbitiousWitch
Summary: Empress Palpatine had come out of nowhere. From hell.And the galaxy knelt before her.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 9
Kudos: 59





	Halved

**Author's Note:**

> Well, hello, there, this wasn't how I expected to come back to this fandom but the movie was... Huh, terrible and one of the things I disliked the most was the forced Rey Palpatine out of nowhere and with no consequences except to make Rey take another name to fulfil more fanbro theories. It's sad because Rey Palpatine could have been interesting if there would have been any foreshadowing of it or if it has been since TFA and not an excuse to make Rey more pure than Ben and ruin her character.
> 
> Since I am pissed off about Ben's unmourned death and all the hundreds of plotholes, here is this little piece in when I think that Rey Palpatine would have finally worked. Mostly I'm just getting it out of my head to keep going with my other fics and the post-TLJ I will be doing later.
> 
> Enjoy!

Dess takes a deep breath as the Red Troopers push her inside the throne room, Exegol was horrible in the descriptions but is even more in person: black, sterile and terrible. She made a mistake, she wasn’t supposed to be alive if they took her so far, but the Sith seem to have their methods to keep her alive even as they torture her.

She should be dead, she has completed her mission with the Rebellion.

But apparently, the Empress wants her alive.

One of the Red Troopers kicks her, forcing her to kneel when they stop in front of the trone, but Dess lifts her eyes anyway. The woman in front of her it’s not like the other Sith, hidden black hoods, but her face it’s clear even with the weak light of the storm roaring outside the temple.

She is young, beautiful, but the grey-ish paleness of her skin makes her look terrifying, her golden eyes locked on Dess’s.

“So,” she starts, her voice low pitched and clear, “this is the famous Desshay Kinsco. You have been quite an inconvenience this week for what I heard.”

Dess doesn’t talk, she raises her chin and presses her lips in a line.

“My troopers have informed me that you haven’t been helpful with the location of some rebellious cells, Desshay. What can I offer you to persuade you?”

As she talks, Dess feels a dull pain in her temple that makes her gasp. She clenches her fists, pushing the invasion away. How powerful is this woman force signature? The whole room feels small as she tries to resist the mental violation. The Empress’ eyes still locked on hers, a whole minute passes until the Mistress of the Sith looks away from her. Dess almost falls on the ground, panting.

“Impressive,” the Empress says, raising a perfect eyebrow. “I see my soldiers have not exaggerated about your powers.”

Dess takes deep breaths as she gets up. _The Force is with me,_ she chants in her mind. She just has to resist until the take her to her cell again.

But the Sith Lady smiles, her teeth sharp like a shark as she gestures one of her servants and when Dess sees what they bring, her heart almost stops in her chest.

_No... No, no, no. How did they find her?_

“Come here, dear.” The Empress says and Ana walks slowly to her, her hand letting go the one of the Sith Lady that was guiding her. Dess let’s go a shuddered breath when her daughter turns at her and slowly shakes her head.

Ana walks to the Empress and the woman smiles again, showing her shark-like teeth, she seats in the black throne and puts Dess’ daughter on her lap, her fingers running over the little girl’s red hair.

“Do you like tales, Ana?” The Empress asks and the girl nods without taking her eyes off her mother. “I was about to tell one to your mother, would you want to hear it?”

“Please, stop!” Dess screams and the Sith Lady tilts her head. “Don’t hurt her, I beg you, she is just a child.”

“There is a child in this tale too.” The Empress holds the girl in her lap. “This tale, my dear, begins with a little girl, a princess sent away from her realm. And ends up with her becoming the most powerful empress that the galaxy had ever seen, do you know how she got there?”

Ana shakes her head and the Dess feels her limbs contracting, her body pulled like a puppet with the Force, she clenched and jaw and fists, resisting the Empress’ power, but soon she ends up levitating. Her eyes lock on her daughter’s.

“There was a rebellion,” the Empress continues, this time her right-hand up to hold Dess in the air and her left to keep Ana in place. “An absurdly small rebellion, but a rebellion nevertheless. And she wanted to save them first, she was willing to kill her own grandfather to do it.”

“I don’t know anything,” Dess says from her place, desperately trying to free herself. “Please, I don’t know where they are.”

“Oh, you do, _Jedi_.” The word comes from the Empress’ mouth like a curse, her eyes shining in a furious golden. “It didn’t take us long to find your village and your base but the crucial information here… Is where is the temple? Where is the Jedi Temple that has been hidden by the rebels?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Dess hisses trying to keep her mind closed, but the Sith Lady smiles again and suddenly is in the air too.

“Mommy!”

“No, please! Please, don’t do it!”

“Tell me where the temple is.” The Empress repeats slowly, pushing through her mind. “Tell me and your daughter won’t suffer any harm. She is strong with the Force, so she will take care of here.”

_That’s all that matters to you? Who is more powerful?_

“The Jedi are a mistake.” The Empress answers. “I will not allow them to rise again. They were hypocritical, pathetic and _weak_. In the end, the Sith always win. The Dark Side has always been the answer.”

Dess is sure that the woman’s voice should sound proud at saying that, but it only sounds empty. Kira Palpatine doesn’t sound like a proud conqueror but like the carcass of a woman long dead already.

“That’s a quite accepted assumption,” the Empress scoffs.

“Why?” Dess asks taking a breath, her eyes never leaving her crying daughter. “The Force can’t stay on darkness forever. It needs balance, it needs the Jedi.”

“Oh, and the Jedi always preach that as long as it keeps them alive.” The Empress laughs. “A Jedi told me once, that to say that if the Jedi dies the Light dies it’s vanity. I see no much has changed in their old ways.

“The Force it’s an instrument.” Dess feels the Empress pushing through her mind. “The Jedi and all the rest make you believe that the Force it’s what controls us, that we are under its bedding. But you know what I learnt, Desshay Kinsco?” She pushes further into her mind and Dess let’s out a scream of frustration.

“I learned that the Force would take more than it would give.” Flashes of her village pass through her mind, Dess clenches her teeth. “I learned that when I let it control me, my life, my destiny; I ended up with half of my soul ripped from me.”

There is that smile again, flashes of the temple and the younglings pass before Dess eyes. _No, no, no._

“There you are.”

“No!” She screams and pushes back, flashes of other’s memories go through her mind.

A desert and a wall full of tally marks.

A green forest and a man in a black mask.

A Sith Lord connected to a machine, laughing.

A young man smiling, collapsing and then vanishing in thin air.

 _He is dead,_ the old man's voice says. _He is dead because of you, child. Because you were weak, because the Jedi will never be strong enough._

_No… You are not real. You're dead._

_I told you that if you stroke me… I would become part of you._

_… And now he is gone, granddaughter. It's just you and me._

_No!_ The scream that comes from the young woman in her memories guttural, painful, almost animalistic. But as soon as it comes it ends quickly and the young Empress' face goes blank, her dark eyes turn yellow as she clings to the shirt that belonged to her lover and walks to her ancestor's throne…

"Enough!" The Empress snaps and an electric charge goes through Dess's body making her scream. “You— You pretentious Jedi, who do you _think_ you are?”

The next that happens is obvious and it had been obvious to Dess that she was going to die at the moment that she had been captured. But the Empress doesn’t try to enter in her mind again. And even with all the pain, she doesn’t tell her where the temple is.

She is lying on the ground when it ends, none of the people around daring to question or defy their Empress’s rage; no matter that they won’t get any information from Dess anymore.

The Empress hovers over her and Dess looks at her right in the eyes before her life ends. A sentiment that almost borders with pity runs through her. She can see it now, after those memories, the great galactic conqueror it’s empty, broken, halved. She will never be happy or satisfied, just like her grandfather.

And that’s why, in time, she is going to lose too.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Comments are appreciated.


End file.
